Discourse on Zacchaeus (St. Amphilochios of Iconium)

Discourse on Zacchaeus 

 

By St. Amphilochios of Iconium

Nothing moves the soul so much toward joy as the fear of God and abstinence from evil, the path of repentance and the manner of confession. Therefore today David calls blessed those whose sins have been forgiven, revealing the philanthropy of Christ and at the same time preparing sinners to hasten to repentance. “Blessed,” he says, “are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered.” Whoever, then, can feel like the harlot and the tax collector, let him run to the inexhaustible springs of Christ’s salvation. Without repentance it is impossible for anyone to receive release from evils or to attain blessedness, even if he be a Prophet or an Apostle or even an Evangelist. For in truth all have drawn from the same source. Among the Prophets is David himself, who even after adultery remained a Prophet, by the grace of Him who forgave him.

Among the Apostles are Peter and Paul: the one received “the keys of the kingdom” after his denial, and the other became the Apostle of the nations after his persecution, transforming Jewish zeal into an evangelical way. And within the Gospels I have known a tax collector who was saved — not only Matthew, but together with him two others. One of these, praying and striking his breast where the treasure of evils lay, and not daring to stand in the temple with uplifted hands and eyes, was not only justified but also crowned, in contrast to the Pharisee. And today’s Zacchaeus, after climbing the tree — where many times he had stood to spy lest some merchant escape him and remain untaxed — now took care lest the Merchant of heaven and earth pass by unnoticed, He who bore within Himself the inviolable treasure of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Zacchaeus (Archimandrite Joel Yiannakopoulos)

Zacchaeus

Luke 19:1-10

By Archimandrite Joel Yiannakopoulos

The Lord, as He was walking toward Jerusalem, as we saw previously, arrived at Jericho. “Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector.” Tax collectors were those who collected tolls and taxes. Jericho was a center for the export of balsam, which was sold throughout the whole world, and a hub of communication between Judea, Perea, and Egypt. This Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector because he was the supervisor of those collectors. “And he was rich and sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd.” Because of the great press of people, walking along with the crowd for some time, Zacchaeus was unable to see Christ, “because he was small in stature.” He was short. “And running ahead,” that is, running forward, “he climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was about to pass that way.” The sycamore was a tree with low branches extending parallel to the ground, having leaves like a mulberry and fruit like a fig. Therefore, it was easy to climb. He runs and climbs it, because Christ was going to pass near it.

January: Day 25: Teaching 2: Saint Gregory the Theologian

January: Day 25: Teaching 2:
Saint Gregory the Theologian
 
(Children Are the Support of Their Parents)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. In the life of Saint Gregory the Theologian, so called for his writings about God the Word, the Savior of the world, and about the Holy Spirit, whose memory we celebrate today, there is one trait of his noble character that is especially instructive for us: his filial love and devotion to his parents. It is this that we recall on this day.

The Lord endowed the great hierarch Saint Gregory with great natural gifts: the gift of eloquence in him was extraordinary. Because of this gift, when Gregory was only twenty-one years old, he was left as an instructor of rhetoric in the very city of Athens where he had received his final education. A great and glorious future lay before Gregory, both in the secular sphere and in the spiritual one; he was invited everywhere to occupy one chair or another. But his love for his aged parents was so great that he once and for all refused all flattering offers, once and for all he resolved to live in Nazianzus until the death of his parents and to help his father there in his episcopal and household labors.

Prologue in Sermons: January 25

To the Terminally Ill

January 25

(A Discourse of Saint Gregory the Theologian on the Death of the Righteous)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

There are many in the world who are incurably ill, for whom the help of physicians is almost useless; they themselves realize this and expect death from day to day. How are such unfortunate people to be comforted? What instruction should be given them? What should be said to them? Let us say to them first of all this.

Saint Gregory, in his discourse on the death of the righteous, says:

Professor John Fountoulis (+ January 24, 2007)

Prof. Fountoulis at a clerical conference

Dr. Georgios D. Panagopoulos,
Professor of Orthodox Dogmatics at the University Ecclesiastical Academy of Athens 

A few days ago, an elect soul, a man of God, Professor Ioannis (John) Fountoulis, departed from this vain world.

Ioannis Fountoulis was born in 1927 in Mesagros of Lesvos to parents from Asia Minor. He studied Theology at the University of Athens, from which he graduated with highest honors. He then pursued excellent postgraduate studies in Belgium, Germany, and France. He was awarded a doctorate by the Faculty of Theology of the University of Thessaloniki. He worked extensively and produced studies and books on liturgical manuscripts in libraries and museums both in Greece and abroad. He contributed articles to a multitude of journals within and outside Greece. He continued to work tirelessly even after his retirement. He participated in many conferences, at which he left an indelible personal mark. He labored creatively for the Church of Greece and the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The local Church of his birthplace owes him much, since he contributed greatly to the discovery and promotion of the Saints of Lesvos. He was spiritually and by family ties connected with the late Metropolitan of Mytilene, His Eminence Iakovos II. He was married and the father of three children.

Venerable Xenia of Rome in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

This blessed and ever-memorable Xenia was from the glorious city of Rome, of an honorable lineage and zealous for the faith. When her parents wished to marry her and all preparations for the wedding had been made, the Saint arose and departed from the bridal chamber together with two other women, two handmaids. After boarding a ship and coming to know other lands, she finally arrived at the city of Mylasa. She was likely guided to that city by the divinely inspired monk Paul (who appeared to her from God in Alexandria and became her guide toward higher things). There she built a small oratory in the name of the Holy Protomartyr Stephen, and together with her two handmaids, as well as with some others who joined her, she lived patiently in great asceticism, abstaining from all sensual pleasures and following the path that leads to the heavenly city.

Thus she passed her life in the will of God, and after her holy and blessed repose she received testimony from God Himself. For at midday, when the sun was illuminating the earth, a cross appeared formed of stars. This cross was encircled and held at its center by another choir of stars, so that it appeared as a crown for the blessed Xenia, given to her by God for her fasting, her vigil, and her purity. And this became evident, for when her relic was laid beneath the earth, the choir and the circle of stars ceased to appear. The details concerning the Saint became known when one of her handmaids, at the time she was about to depart this life, recounted the homeland of the blessed one, her noble lineage, and the name she had received from her parents — for she was called Eusebia — which she changed to Xenia, because she strove to live in concealment.

Homily for the Commemoration of Saint Xenia of Petersburg (Fr. Daniel Sysoev)

 

Homily for the Commemoration of Saint Xenia of Petersburgh 

By Fr. Daniel Sysoev

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!

I congratulate you all on the feast in honor of our beloved Saint Xenia of Petersburg! Even in Soviet times it was completely impossible to stop the stream of pilgrims to the grave of Blessed Xenia. The very phenomenon of Saint Xenia is remarkable: it is, of course, an example of how a person can serve God when it seems that life itself is entirely unfavorable to this. She lived in the eighteenth century, in the terrible post-Petrine era of widespread apostasy from God; in this respect even the nineteenth century was more pious. The eighteenth century was an age of debauchery and the degradation of Russian society (especially the upper classes), when such things were not only concealed but even flaunted.

It was in this time that the family of Andrei Fyodorovich and his wife Xenia lived. They were quite young: Andrei Fyodorovich was thirty years old, Xenia twenty-six. He held the rank of lieutenant colonel and was also a singer, singing with a magnificent tenor in the choir of the palace church (in the Winter Palace). Everything seemed to be going piously enough, but during one ball organized by Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, Andrei Fyodorovich was made very drunk; he went off to a female singer, and when he was walking away from her along the street, he was struck by a carriage.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Responds to Russian Propaganda and Updates on the Re-Opening of Halki

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in TA NEA Weekend: “As if I would fear Russian propaganda.”

The primate of Orthodoxy speaks to TA NEA Weekend about the war in Ukraine and the attack he has faced from Russia.

By Maria Mourelatou
TA NEA Weekend
January 24, 2026

On the occasion of his visit to Thessaloniki next Thursday, and against the backdrop of the tectonic changes in the postwar geopolitical order, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew speaks to Ta Nea Weekend, addressing messages in all directions.

Regarding the situation in Ukraine, the primate of Orthodoxy—who, as he notes, has from the outset stood by “the Ukrainian people, who are being severely tested by the Russian invasion”—makes it clear that this is not a “holy war,” but an expansionist war, “absolutely satanic,” which is “the result of vain people addicted to the opium of power.”

Rejecting the unprovoked attack he recently received from the press office of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, the Ecumenical Patriarch declares himself fearless in the face of the fire directed at both him and the Patriarchate by “dirty attacks” and by “Russian internet trolls,” speaking of “Stalinist propaganda tactics.” “I am not afraid of them,” he responds, while at the same time emphasizing, with regard to the global balance of terror, that “every war is a defeat for humanity.”

Prologue in Sermons: January 24

 

Against Complaining

January 24

(A Homily on Job and Love for the Poor.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Some Christians, when some misfortune befalls them, instead of bowing before the inscrutable ways of God’s Providence, remembering their sins and repenting of them, and placing all their hope in God, usually begin to complain and say: “Why is God punishing me? Does He really not see my sufferings? It seems to me that I did good to everyone — so-and-so and so-and-so, at such-and-such a time and such-and-such a time,” and so on without end. This, brethren, is not good. Such complaining reveals in a person a lack of love for God, little faith, self-love, and perhaps pride. In misfortunes one should not act this way. How then, you may ask, should one act? In this way, we reply: as the Holy Fathers teach. And how do they teach?